Titanium alloys are restricted from industrial applications as tribological components because of their inherent poor wear resistance. In this paper, novel wear resistant Ti2Ni3Si reinforced intermetallic composite coatings with a microstructure consisting of ternary metal silicide Ti2Ni3Si primary dendrites and interdendritic Ti2Ni3Si/NiTi eutectic were fabricated on a substrate of a titanium alloy BT9 by the laser cladding process. Wear resistance of the coating was evaluated under dry sliding wear tester condition at room temperature. Results indicated that the laser clad coatings have excellent wear resistance and very low load sensitivity under dry sliding wear test conditions. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.